Schaefers Marina (Chesapeake City, MD)

Schaefers Marina
208 Bank St, Chesapeake City, MD 21915

Date of Service: Friday, 5/22/26 – Monday, 6/8/26
Cons: C&D Canal Traffic, Chesapeake City Bridge Traffic, Current, Female Trespasser Boarded our Vessel, No Dock Carts, No Pump Out Service, Parking Lot Fills, Restaurant Office Tends to Open Mail Packages, & Vessels Caught Off Guard by the Current
Pros: Accommodating, Approach (25′)/Dockside (18′) Depth, Complimentary Water, Complimentary WiFi, Courtesy Call (Confirming Arrival & Mail Delivery), Date Flexibility, Discount Applied, Experienced Dock Hands, Dock Hands (Steven & Tom), Friendly Staff (Brady, Steven & Tom), Mail Delivery Welcome, Old School REZ (Live Person), Management Daily Presence (Steven & Tom), Resolution Efforts (Steven), Restaurant Onsite (Schaefers Canal House), Ride to Enterprise (Steven), Short Walk to Lower Parking Lot, Staff Care (Steven & Tom), & VHF Responsiveness (Dock Hands, Steven, & Tom)

• Daily Electrical Amp Charge (30 AMP = $12/Day & 50 AMP = $24/Day)
• Fuel Available ($)
• Fixed & Floating Docks
• Ice Available ($)
• Meeting Facility Available
• Pet Friendly

Comments: Chesapeake City has roughly a 3.5′ tidal range, you must use long dock lines and leave plenty of slack so your boat can rise and fall without hanging up.

Consistently, we witnessed Steven & Tom mentoring and teaching the dock hands.

Daily Steven was seen on the property making improvements, maintenance, and repairs in between receiving fuel and transient vessels. The volume of traffic for fuel, overnight, and transient dining kept the dock hands busy!

Dock hands are available until 8PM, as they assist dining transients.

Dock hands regularly ran up and down the face dock and floating docks to assist vessels with lines upon arrival and even on departure. That’s rare!

Due to an unexpected dental issue (chipped tooth) we were able to easily extend our stay for dental care.

During our stay, we were fortunate to be on the floating dock with electricity and water. Other transients were not as lucky as there’s only two pedestal electrical tower by the walkway ramp. As more transients arrived our water hook up was unhooked as they didn’t appear to have splitters on the transient floating dock at the time. During our stay, Steven worked to resolve this issue. Daily overnight transients were at the end of fuel dock without electricity. Suspect water was available from the fuel station area. There are a few electrical tower stations in front of the restaurant.

Floating dock lacks electrical tower stations, there’s only two nearest the gangway.

Fuel volume discount: BoatUS: $0.05 off up to 499 gallon. Also, a 10¢ Off 500 – 1499 gallons and $0.20 Off 1500+.

Marina has both fixed and floating docks.

May accomodate a mega yachts up to 250′.

On site is the M/V Summer Breeze cruise boat. The M/V Summer Breeze vessel takes up to 49 passengers on cruises for 2 hours along the C&D Canal and Elk Rivers. Reserve seating required. It’s a inexpensive and leisurely cruise!

On Sunday, 6/7/26 a female trespassed, boarding our vessel as we were finishing up our dinner. When I leaped up and bolted out the salon door with some profanity, she scurried off. At the time, we had no idea whether this was a guest walking the dock or fellow boater. Later, we learned actions of a fellow boater. WTF! Incident reported to the office, and our vessels security video footage provided as requested.

Opened by John Schaefer in 1935, serving original crab cakes prepared by Winifred Schaefer. Purchased in 2010 by Kennett Square restaurateurs who thoroughly modernized the docks and facility.

Primarily a restaurant-adjacent transient stop rather than a full-resort marina. There are restrooms and a small ships store, however no on-site showers, laundry facilities, or swimming pool.

Reservations the way boating used to be. You call, a live person answers and takes your information, not referred to a online booking system. Settle up the day before your departure. We loved it!

Ship’s Store primarily sells t-shirts.

Staff is very mindful with docked unattended vessels with incoming vessels misjudging the current and jumping onboard dock vessels for their protection.

Steven graciously gave us a lift to Enterprise (Middletown, DE) to pick up our car rental.

The Town of Chesapeake City Municipal Docks are located on the South Side of the C&D Canal if you prefer to drop you tender. Also, where jet skis dock for dining.

Tidal current in the C&D Canal is notoriously swift. Check the direction of the flow and always make your final docking approach facing into the current to maintain steerage and control. We timed our arrival and departure at slack tide without any issues.

We rented a vehicle during our stay for errands and medical appointments. The parking lot fills quickly due to restaurant patrons and trail cyclists. Even the upper lot fills up on weekends. Schaefers Canal House could really use Valet Parking services.

You can ride the Chesapeake City Ferry. The seasonal shuttle operates from mid-April through mid-October and runs a continuous 5-to-7-minute loop directly between the South Side public dock and the North Side landing, which is just one short block from Schaefers Canal House & Marina. No need to drop the tender.

Visit Again: Yes

If you have been following our reviews for awhile, then you’ll notice four stars are far and few. Five star reviews even more rare. An if the “cons” seem odd given the four star rating, it’s always the overall experience.

Given our travels, it’s rare to find such a caring, compassionate, friendly, hardworking, and mindful marina staff as we encountered here.

More importantly, “one always remember how they were meant to feel” with every encounter, so a special shoutout to Steven and Mr Tom!